Action news round-up. Latest techno madness. Four calls from near and far: pro-Avatar; back pain as symptom of contemporary stress-world; questions re: critique of symbolic culture; recommended readings. Mental health deteriorating, end of civilization the prescription! PictureEugene video segment; “A view from above”: massive clearcuts in our national forests from above.


This movie is part of the collection: Community Video

Producer: John Zerzan & Tim Lewis
Audio/Visual: sound
Keywords: anarchy; green anarchy; anti-civilization; anti-authoritarian

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States

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Reviewer: Kalevi09 - - January 23, 2010
Subject: Alienation and psychosomatic pain
The caller who discussed psychosomatic back pain got me thinking about psychosomatic symptoms in general. The stress and anxiety induced by modern life causes people to suffer not only mentally but also physically. However, it seems there is an overwhelming need with most people these days to interpret pain, whether it be physical or mental, as strictly physiological in origin, apparently because this is in accordance with the prevailing biomedical model.

I saw a program on Finnish television about people who believe they are allergic to electromagnetic fields emitted by electric appliances. They report physical symptoms which they say arise in connection to electromagnetic radiation. These may include anything from nausea and headaches to dizziness and tingling sensations.

However, empirical studies on the phenomenon have found that the symptoms will arise irrespective of whether or not the subjects are exposed to electromagnetic radiation (i.e. whether the radiation is real or imagined). This indicates that the symptoms which subjects interpret as "electrohypersensitivity" are really no more than psychosomatic reactions to stress. If this is indeed the case, it is interesting to imagine what may cause the symptoms to be associated, of all things, with electric machines.

The name of the documentary may provide a clue: Refugees From Technocracy. A shocking idea occurred to me while watching the program: Is this "allergy" to electricity essentially a subconscious defence reaction to technological mass society? Is it a fiction created by the mind in order that it may explain and render socially acceptable its "irrational" desire to flee the system of machines?

Is it possible that the person presumably suffering from electrohypersensitivity subconsciously recognises the electric machine as a symbol for technological mass society, the source of her/his suffering? Does the mind, therefore, build a defence against the machine, the visible sign of an insufferable reality, in the form of psychosomatic pain?

Is electrohypersensitivity essentially a fiction created by the mind in order that it may explain in modern biomedical terms (the only language biomedicalistic society will listen) its otherwise unintelligible experience of alienation?